1. Keyword(s): The asterisk at the end of each term searches for variants. Thus in the example for scandal the variants scandals, scandalous, scandalized, etc. will be retrieved. Notice, too, how the terms are separated with the word and. This ensures that both terms will appear in a given record, and that they appear in any order.
2. Author as Subject: The author was retrieved using the select from thesaurus feature.
3. Author’s Work: One can also search for information using the title of a work. Thus, in the example above, information will be retrieved about any literary work that has Possession in its title.

Contemporary Authors (CA): The online CA contains the full-text of articles about writers along with select bibliographies. Older editions of CA can be found in book form in the Thomas Jefferson Library Reference area.

Gale's Literary Index (GLI): This publication is a master index to the major literary criticism products (in paper and online) published by the Gale company. This is NOT a full-text database, yet many of the titles that it indexes, such as Contemporary Literary Criticism, Dictionary of Literary Biography, and Nineteenth-Century Literary Criticism, can be found in the Reference area of the Thomas Jefferson Library. Contemporary Authors is available online (see above). Contemporary Literary Criticism, Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism, and Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism contain excerpts of book chapters and articles. Unfortunately, the excerpts may appear substantial and complete but they are, in the end, just excerpts. Still, they can be a very useful survey of what literary critics say about an author’s work.

Dissertation Abstracts (DA): Dissertation Abstracts contains more than 1.2 million citations (with abstracts since 1980) to doctoral degree dissertations by accredited North American educational institutions and more than 200 institutions elsewhere. Also contains citations (with abstracts since 1988) to masters' theses corresponding to the coverage in Masters Abstracts.

• In DA the $ sign is the equivalent of the * in MLA. Thus in DA the above keyword search would be repeated as: victorian$ and scandal$
• The UMSL Libraries will NOT have the great majority of dissertations ever written, though on occasion a dissertation does get published as a book; in such a case the libraries might have it. You will have to submit an Interlibrary Loan (ILL) form to get an item found in DA. Many of the dissertations in DA can be acquired for free. But if money is involved ($38 minimum) you will be contacted to see if you are willing to pay (i.e., you will never be charged against your will).

If any UMSL library database does not have the full-text of an article, the (Article Linker) icon appears alongside the citations in your search results. Clicking this icon will let you:
1. Find the article in ANOTHER library database by providing one (or more) direct links to the article itself, else
2. Provide a link to one (or more) databases that contain the article. In such a case you will have to search in the database(s) for the article itself
3. If the article is not online in anyway gives you an option to search in the libraries' catalog. You will then copy down the journal's call number and location and find the article on the Libraries' shelves.
4. If the journal is not available at UMSL then provides a link to Submit an Interlibrary Loan Request. The article will be photocopied from another library and sent to you. You can also choose to see the article online by selecting "E-mail - Electronic Delivery" on the request form. Note: you will need to use your Student ID (not MyGateway ID) to login to the Interlibrary Loan request form.

BOOKS:

1. To find books on a given topic go to the UM-St. Louis Library Catalog and search by Subject, such as

   Byatt, A. S. (Antonia Susan), 1936- -- Criticism and interpretation

2. You can also search by keywords, such as in the examples below:

   Victorian*   and   scandal*         (note the asterisks!)

   Victorian*   within 3   scandal*

Also search the MOBIUS catalog, which lets you get books from from over 60 academic institutions in Missouri! With MOBIUS you can easily have books sent to the Thomas Jefferson Library. Remember when using MOBIUS that that UMSL is part of the MERLIN cluster.

FOR MORE HELP: You can request a Research Consultation from the libraries' home page or ask for a Research Consultation form at the desk. The research consultation program at the UMSL Libraries lets students get personalized, in-depth help from an UMSL reference librarian.